Photos released of two-million-year-old fossils

Thursday, 08 April 2010 11:08

The remarkable remains of two ancient human-like creatures (hominids) have been found in South Africa. The fossils of a female adult and a juvenile male - perhaps mother and son - are just under two million years old.

They were uncovered in cave deposits near Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site near Johannesburg. The team behind the discovery reports in the journal Science that the new species should be assigned the name Australopithecus sediba.

Its mosaic of features, the researchers believe, means it fills an important gap between older hominids and the group of more modern species known as Homo, which includes our own kind."It's at the point where we transition from an ape that walks on two legs to, effectively, us," lead scientist Professor Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand told BBC News.